Glory, Glorified, Making Sense of its Meaning
Fifth Sunday of Easter
Lectionary: 54
Reading 1 Acts 14:21-27
Responsorial Psalm Ps 145:8-9, 10-11, 12-13
Reading 2 Rev 21:1-5A
Gospel Jn 13:31-33A, 34-35
When Judas had left them, Jesus said,
“Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
If God is glorified in him,
God will also glorify him in himself,
and God will glorify him at once.
My children, I will be with you only a little while longer.
I give you a new commandment: love one another.
As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.
This is how all will know that you are my disciples
if you have love for one another.”
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/042813.cfm
This weekend Journeyman has a unique opportunity to take us to Jerusalem to visit the filming of Glorified, a new made-for-TV adaptation of the Gospel of John, now under production by Joshua Creations. In fact he has a part in the production as Research Assistant, and this gives him special access to watch the production unfolding, right behind camera position.
(Remember, we must remain quiet on the set and just observe. Let's listen.)
QUIET ON THE SET! barks the assistant director.
ROLL CAMERA! Scene 13:30.
Slap! resounds the clapboard loudly.
Cue Narrator…ACTION!
Narrator: When Judas had left them, Jesus said,
“CUT!” the Director shouts, freezing the action in the scene.
“Back up and let’s retake from the first narration line again…”
“Judas? Where’s Judas? Somebody go get him back in here and get set to re-cue his leaving!”
Journeyman, thinking to himself, has a flashback to John: Chapter 13:1-30: http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/13
Oh! That’s where this scene is coming from, back at the Last Supper; right after Yeshua washes his disciples' feet. Then the short snippet above. Followed by Peter’s denial, but just before Yeshua celebrates Mass for the first time.
Wait a minute! Yeshua never celebrated a “Mass”! He wasn’t even an ordained Roman Catholic priest. He wasn’t even from the family line of Jewish priests. Oh!? That’s a whole different part of the story that the gospel author John does not write about.
Director:
Okay….Retake!
ROLL CAMERA! Scene 13:31.
Slap! resounds the clapboard loudly again.
Cue Narrator…ACTION!
Narrator: “When Judas had left them, Jesus said”
Jesus (actor):
“Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
If God is glorified in him,
God will also glorify him in himself,
and God will glorify him at once.
CUT! yells the director again.
“Jesus…what in god’s name are you saying? ‘Now is the Son of Man glorified….blah blah blah…’ What’s this ‘glory’ thing? That’s rubbish. Leave it out.”
The actor portraying Jesus replies:
“Well, this is what’s exactly in the script. I think it comes from that Johnny guy, who wrote it back in the 1st century.
From the shadows Journeyman steps forward carrying a large stack of papers and speaking hesitantly:
“Mr. Director…sir…SIR...You can’t drop that word. It’s right through the bible! When the script was being checked, sir, we consulted experts and they wouldn't allow any substitute word.”
Director:
“Experts! Who are they? Scholars? What good are experts? Just more blah, blah, blah. Can’t we find a word that won’t put the audience to sleep?"
Research Assistant: Sir, it doesn't work if you're going to just say it like a speech. You see, it was probably a song, a poem, that's been inserted into the text, but now it reads as if Jesus made it up there and then. You could try having Jesus recite it like a poem, reflectively, to himself.
Director: Yeah, well. Whatever. We'd better take a break'
And get that fixed up for tomorrow.
Start at six, everybody!
As the lights go off and people disperse, Journeyman goes back to his desk and sends a quick email to his support base. It's going to be a long night. The problem is 'glory': give it to us in a nutshell.
******
On the other side of the world, Journeyman's collaborator, Ynot, begins to wrestle with the term 'glory'. Putting it in a nutshell is like packing the christmas lights back into their box. It's impossible to fold so many meanings into one small space. So where to start?
In time an email appears in Journeyman's inbox:
Hi, Joe, I've found a pretty sharp quote for you:
In the Old Testament, various authors used a term to speak of the felt presence of a loving, saving and guiding God among his people. Whether it was the opening of the Reed Sea , the pillar of fire, the manna from heaven, the ark of the covenant, the Temple, or (among the poets) the beauty of the heavens, the biblical authors used the same term kebod YHWH, the glory of Yahew. This term got translated, strangely, in the Septuagint as doxa tou theou; for the normal Greek meaning of doxa was not “glory”, but “esteem”, “honour”, “earthly success”, covering a range of ideas connected with achievement humanly measured by culture and history. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary 83:26.
So let's look at it this way. Start with the cloud: 'shekinah'. Out in the desert the Lord's presence was manifest in the cloud that went before them, or stood guard over the camp. It was sometimes called the Lord's 'glory'. Later when the temple was built a cloud filled the temple – not really: that was a way of saying that the Lord's presence filled the temple. In gospel times, Luke has the spirit overshadow Mary to make her fruitful – same idea. When Jesus was transfigured a cloud overshadowed them and a voice came from the cloud.
The expression kebod JHWH – the glory of the Lord was in common use among the Hebrews. Leaders and prophets and high priests were filled with kebod JHWH.
Like the shekinah, kebod JHWH speaks of the god who cannot be seen, cannot be understood, cannot even be named. God the Mystery. God the 'Holy', i.e., the other-than-us who is yet present, looking after us, even dwelling among us, even in us.
Since they could not name god for fear of bringing god down to a human level (anthropomorphism), the Hebrews avoided the name altogether and said 'The Glory of the Lord' instead.
The expression kebod JHWH becomes loaded with all the meanings of God, spirit, great mystery, the one who makes things happen, the saviour, present and active.
Greek: When the bible was translated into Greek by seventy scholars (hence, 'Septuagint') their best option was to use the Greek word doxa to translate kebod. Doxa means esteem, honour, earthly success, and does not in itself pick up the meaning of kebod, but at first everyone would have known those ancient meanings and there was no problem. For us there is a problem because we have no contact at all with the original meaning of kebod JHWH.
Currently among us people are coming to recognise that christians are over-familiar with 'God'. God has become domesticated. The mystery has been lost amid the formulas of dogma and the rituals of prayer. We can speak of the 'glory of God' without any idea of what the term meant for the Hebrews. It is virtually empty of meaning. If it brings anything to mind it is likely to be an image of a white-bearded figure seated amid the clouds of heaven... The idea of kebod JHWH, the 'glory' of the Lord, is remote.
Well, that's the guts of it, Joe, for your information. Now we've got to find a way to put this across in the script.
Get back to you soon.
Ynot.
Journeyman replies: Oh, come on! How am I gunna get that across to the old man tomorrow? And who cares about 'glory'. It's the verb we're stuck with: 'glorify'. What'll we do with that? It's the title of the film, for chrissake.
Ynot: Keep your shirt on, Joe. We'll get there. Just leave me alone. 5 a.m. your time. Okay?
Wouldn't be so hard, thinks Ynot, if this was real poetry. Maybe it's the original christian hymn with awful lyrics. Checks the Greek. Yep, there it is 'o theos, 'o theos, 'o theos – as if they were having a shot at the Jews! And this is John's gospel. Well, perhaps that is the point. He comes up with a composite, but it might be too clumsy for a film script:
Now the Son of Man is glorified,
the mystery of his godliness is revealed,
and God is glorified in him
the presence of the Lord shines in him.
If God is glorified in him
if the Lord abides in him
God will also glorify him in himself
the Lord will be present to him personally
and God will glorify him at once
will reveal in him God's likeness
in this present time.
*****
Back on the set:
ACTION
Jesus, sitting, swaying rhythmically on his chair, softly chants:
Now the Son of Man is glorified
the mystery of his godliness is revealed
and the presence of the Lord shines in him.
If God abides in him,
the Lord will be present to him personally,
and will reveal in him God's likeness
in the here and now.
The disciples sitting around take up the chant, repeating it softly, over and over.
Director: Cut!
He sits silent for a moment, then looks over to the research assistant: Yeah, that works. But what happened to this 'glory' thing. You just said the original text used this word 'glory' over and over, and now you've dropped it completely. We're allowed to make adjustments, but I don't want to get sued for falsifying the content.
Research Assistant: Well, sir, 'glory' is an old Hebrew concept that refers to god in many different ways. Perhaps the people who read this text originally could relate to 'glory' and had all its meanings in their head. But we need to break it open and spell out some of those meanings.
I think we've got most of them covered:
- there's the revelation of god,
- there's the presence of god shining like a luminescence,
- there's the abiding presence of god,
- there's god present to a person one to one,
- and there's the revealing of god's likeness in a human.
Director: But aren't we talking about 'glorify'? You still haven't got that right.
Research Assistant: That's just the point, sir. God is glorified when people recognise the revelation, when they acknowledge the spirit at work in them. And God is glorified when you see a shine of goodness in someone who does the right thing. And God glorifies a man or woman by making them his 'dwelling place' - er - if I may use an old scripture word.
To sum up, God is glorified when people acknowledge the working of God in the here and now.
That's the idea in a nutshell. That what it means to glorify God.
Director - not interested in acknowledging god – sourly: Yeah, right. Let's get it in the can.
Clapboard!
And so on.